A vehicle seat apparatus having a (rear) seat foldable to provide a storage space available for loading of luggage in using a vehicle for an intended purpose is well known, as disclosed in patent literature 1 below. A vehicle seat apparatus taught in patent literature 1 includes left and right side links disposed on a vehicle floor for supporting a seat cushion. The left and right side links are pivotable to turn the seat cushion forwardly.
In folding the seat apparatus, an operating system is manually manipulated to unlock the seat cushion. When the seat cushion is unlocked, the left and right side links pivot to turn the seat cushion upwardly from a seating position to a stowed position located forwardly of the seating position.
The seat cushion is turned upwardly while the seatback is unlocked to fold forwardly from an upright position to a forward folded position. With the seat cushion in the stowed position and the seatback in the forward folded position, the vehicle seat apparatus is folded. By folding the vehicle seat apparatus, a storage space for loading luggage into a luggage compartment is available.
Generally, when the seat cushion is turned upwardly from the seating position to the stowed position, it is desirable that the seat cushion hold its upwardly turned posture in a preferred manner conforming to a passenger compartment. As for the vehicle seat apparatus of patent literature 1, the left and right side links support the seat cushion. In order to hold the upwardly turned posture of the seat cushion in the preferred manner, the side links should have large sizes providing sufficiently increased rigidity. However, if the side links have such large sizes, it is difficult to provide a space for disposition of the side links. From this standpoint, there is a room to improve the vehicle seat apparatus.